Sunday, August 24, 2008

Not age wise...sorry. She's an established author, but new to me since I've been seriously focused on only reading the line I'm targeting as a writer. I've had an email request to exchange blog links with an author and went to the corresponding link to check her out. I've talked/read quite a bit about networking and getting our names out there, so this is a great opportunity I can't pass up.

Girls...she's hilarious!

Check out her website and you might want to consider adding her as a favorite. I love her Southern sense of humor...she fits right in with my family. I LOVE her tagline:

Friday, August 22, 2008

My critique partner, Chicki Brown, asked me to play along for a cool theme tag. Book Buzz Tag...here goes:

I am going to list three categories of books.

5 MUST Read Books, 5 Books on Your Nightstand, and 5 Look For These Soon.

Keeping with the theme, I am going to tag at least 5 bloggers. They should put these same lists on their blog but SUBTRACT one book from each list and ADD one of their own. Then they should tag at least 5 more bloggers. It will be fun to see how the lists change as it goes around the blogosphere.

Please come back to this post and leave a comment so I can see how the lists are changing as they go around the blogosphere. Since this is Book Buzz…please keep your lists to titles released in 2007-2009.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

A good friend and critique partner, Chicki Brown, sent this to me and it just really hit home. I've been dealing with so many things recently that I've become frustrated with my life in general. I think this is a wonderful technique to use in our lives...not just writing and/or our career. I definitely need some focus and a kick in the behind. In the meantime...I wanted to show you guys the entire post and not just summarize or post a snippet.

Did you know that your subconscious mind can’t differentiate between real and imaginary? Whatever you repeat, whatever you give a great deal of energy to is what your subconscious believes… and what it creates for you. Best-sellers like The Secret outline the Law of Attraction in great detail, but the basic concept is that whatever you believe deep down is what you draw into your life.

The bottom line: if you believe in your goal, if you really do believe that you’ll sell your book or that you’ll hit the NYT bestseller list, then your subconscious mind will work to make that happen. Just like if, deep down, you believe you won’t do these things, your subconscious mind will continuously throw up blocks to help confirm your belief.

So how do we apply this to goal setting?

By visualizing your goal. If you can visualize or imagine the goal, your subconscious will see it as real. The more often you visualize, the more real it becomes.

Writers have gifted imaginations and creating a visualization is as simple as writing a scene with you as the main character. Choose a goal and ask yourself what scene would best epitomize that goal? If it’s to sell a book, the scene could be signing your first contract or celebratory launch party. It could be a long line of readers waiting to have you sign copies in a crowded bookstore or perhaps seeing your name and book up on Amazon. Maybe it’s as simple as tracing your name over the cover of the book. Whatever your goal is, pick the scene that seems strongest to you (remember, we’re writers. We know how to pick the most emotionally charged scene, right?). Now empower that scene. Use all the senses. What are the scents? What do you hear? Who’s in the scene with you? What are the textures and is the air charged with an electric feeling of excitement? What are you wearing? How does it feel? Bring in all of the emotions.

Now relax and let this scene play out in your head. You can spend five minutes or fifty, whatever works for you. The key is to really live the scene. Let yourself feel the joy, the wonder. Let those emotions flow.

Easy enough, right?

Right!

Now the real trick is to repeat your visualization daily (or in my case, nightly. Each night as I turn off the light, I spend time visualizing my goals.) The more often you visualize the goal, the sooner/easier it’ll manifest. You might find yourself revising your imagined scene as the weeks go by. Just like we revise our goals to meet our current circumstance, our visualizations will shift and grow. But the key is to be consistent and emotionally invested.

Soon, if you consistently do your goal visualization, you’ll find yourself noticing sabotaging behaviors. You’ll hear your own self-talk, notice when you’re procrastinating and getting in the way of your own goal success.

What are your visualization experiences? Have you ever done any visualization work before? Did you find it difficult or easy to see your scene play out in your mind? Have you applied visualization to your writing and goal setting?

Monday, August 18, 2008

Almost a month since I last blogged? Dagnabit. No excuse...well, maybe a few. Life. Kids going back to school. Hubby coming home. For good. His company was taken over and he lost his job. He'll have a week to adjust and we have to take a road trip so he can interview for another. He'll have to travel, but at least it'll be within the same country.

Excuses? A few. That's life. My writing has taken a back burner to the chaos. But tonight I took a drive. It always seems to clear my head...ya know, kinda like when we take babies for a ride to rock them to sleep? Well, I love to listen to my music and drive. Helps me think.

Jason Aldean. Up very loud. He's one of my favorite country artists. My ex used to make fun of country music, and the misery he thought it stood for. But Mr. Aldean sings about life. I had to move our truck around to the front of the building, and when I turned on the ignition...Jason sang to me. The truck just kept going. I thought maybe I'd take a ride around the block. But the muted lights from the dashboard had a calming effect, with the words from the music turning in my head, and I kept driving. I really listened to the lyrics. It was coming from a man...I could hear my hero talking to me. Telling me why, telling me what to say. Before I knew it--I passed a sign welcoming me to the next town. I had driven 25 miles without realizing where I'd gone.

I'm having an issue with my first chapter, and trying to begin in just the right spot has got me frustrated. I had a critique partner tell me she didn't like my hero. Well...that's ok. He has to have room to grow. But then I thought about what she said and reread the chapter. I began the chapter in the heroine's spunky POV. I think what it needs though, is to begin with the hero. So hopefully tonight I can translate my thoughts and my heroes perspective.

About Me

Wife, Mom and romance writer. I love spending time with my beautiful family and cooking out with friends. We have a mini farm going on with horses, chickens, Blue Heelers and Boxers. We're volunteers for the local Red Dirt Boxer Rescue. We foster Boxers until we can find loving furever homes. Please spay and neuter your pets!